Is it too early to use the C word? Nope good, cos we have a lot planned between now and Christmas.

Our Autumn season of classes are varied and we like to think unique. Really there is going to be something for everyone. From beginner to advanced and everyone in-between will be catered for.

Starting off with our first class: Sock Knitting. Might sound blase like everyone can knit a pair of socks but what makes our class different is that you will be taught to knit using 2 circular needles – yes TWO.

Our fabulous tutor, Nancy is coming to us with this unique way of knitting a pair of socks. Starting from the toe she will take you through stitch by stitch turning at the heel and then the sky’s the limit.

She says that once you start to knit socks this way you will never knit another pair any other way.

Spaces are limited for this class, but you will get to keep your new needles at the end so you can create and keep everyone’s feet warm this winter and beyond.

So the children have finished school (Where did that year go?) and the thoughts at home are all about relaxing over the summer holidays, trying to keep the children from saying “I’m bored” and dreaming about wall to wall sunshine.

Not here though!

Like all good swans we are paddling away under the water to prepare for September and beyond and even Christmas – sorry I said the C word in July!

Several classes have been confirmed and put onto both here on our website and our Facebook page. But there will be more coming up so do keep an eye out for that special something. Our classes are even perfect as a gift for that crafter who has everything.

But we are closed for our holidays soon so that our own batteries can be recharged and ready to get all set and organised. The shop will close on Tuesday 11th July at 1pm and reopen on Tuesday 18th July at 9.30am.

So finally after much wailing and gnashing of teeth our website is back up and running!

Then we thought that this would be the perfect time to have a wee re-jig and an update. And then as the tea flowed we thought about linking our Facebook page to our website.

And then after another cup of tea we thought about linking our online ordering to our Facebook. So after doing all of that we needed another cup of tea! But we are getting there.

All of our classes can be found on our website as well as all of our products. The best feature I think we could have added is that you can click and collect any product you wish. So that means if you are doing any of our special classes then you can grab all the fabric you need and collect it on the day.

I hope you enjoy looking over our new website and if there is anything you would like to see then let us know

Lots of things have fallen into place in a very short space of time and we are moving into top gear with the classes and our sale.

Let the sale commence. We have decided to split the sale up slightly and do the shop in sections. So first up for the shop is the fabric section of Elizabeth Rose NI with 20% off all lines. This part of the sale will last until Saturday 21st January and will get us ready for all the knitters to follow from Tuesday 24th January to Saturday 4th February – just in time for all the classes to start back. Last but by no means least is our haberdashery section for the finishing touches and those essentials needed to even begin a project.

Now I will tell you about our new range of classes.

First up is our Introduction to Dressmaking which starts on Monday 6th February. This is a 6 week course to introduce those who want to make their own clothes but have no clue where to begin bar the sewing machine. It will be taken by local woman Lynn Roper who has been sewing her own clothes since she was a teenager. Sewing her own clothes came naturally and she carried on when she had children making them their wardrobe and I should know as I was one of those children!

The course will cover all the basics of how to cut patterns, the terms used, the best fabrics to use for what project and you will make something every week. The course will be held every Monday from 10am to 12 noon.

Our second course is being taken by returning tutor Heather Girvan. Heather has previously taken our crochet classes and she will continue to do that but in a slight change she will also be taking an advanced crochet class. In this class she will take us step by step through how to make a Scandinavian shawl that really is a piece of art. This shawl will take on two skills – crocheting and cross stitch to make a stunning piece of wearable art.

This course is 14 weeks in total but has been spilt into two 7 week blocks for ease.

Our other new class is a drop in for sewing and is called Pins and Needles. Simply put, this class is for those people who don’t like to sew alone or need help to finish off a tough project. Really like a knit a natter but for sewers.

As I said we have our crochet class returning, but our new addition is that you book your place on any of these courses in the shop section of our website. Places are limited for all the classes so get in early! Don’t worry though if you are not all that technically minded, all our courses can be bought in the shop with Charlene.

Special Monthly classes are also on the horizon here at Elizabeth Rose so keep a eye out for updates on those and also all about our range of children’s sewing classes that will be starting.

Hi all and here at Elizabeth Rose NI we hope that you have all had a fabulously festive Christmas and New Year, with your batteries recharged and are now ready for a new crafty year. I was looking forward to getting snowed in over the holidays with all my PDP (Part-done Projects) but Jack Frost did not comply.

We had hinted before Christmas that here at Elizabeth Rose we were planning a few little surprises for 2017 and beyond and now we can tell you all about them.

Firstly we are planning to expand our range of classes to include dressmaking. The popularity that our Sew Saturday event generated really made the decision easy but it has been putting everything into place. Our other classes will still be there so don’t panic.

We are also working on classes for the smaller sewer. A range of sewing classes for childen and teenagers. It means more seeing fun but on a smaller scale and we love promoting the sewing bug all around the ages.

Secondly, Charlene has agreed to do a vlog once a month. A Vlog is a short video allowing you the viewer to see what we have been talking about. These short videos means that she will be showing us all how to do everything from simple stitches in sewing, knitting or crocheting and even a tour of the shop.

Don’t be afraid of a vlog though. They are a very useful tool in learning new skills and stitches and it means that you can press pause and rewind and Charlene will not lose her voice. Win win!

Oh that is the other exciting piece of news – the shop is expanding. We will be re-jigging the layout of the shop so that we have room for all you lovely people and more stock! There will still be all your favourites and ours but with a few new additions.

We will be changing the website in line with all these alterations and also all the classes will be able to be booked through both the website or the shop.

To get you all excited for the new things coming in, we have to make some room and that can only mean one thing – A SALE!!!! We all love a wee bargain so over the next few weeks we will be reducing stock starting with the fabric.

Keep an eye out for more news on the classes, sale items and the shop revamp and we will see you soon

This time of year everything seems to be last minute. No matter how prepared we think we are, most of us are running around on Christmas Eve and crafters are no different. We all know someone who starts a project last minute for someone they just thought of. We all know someone else who is still sewing or knitting well into the early hours of Christmas morning. And we are no exception here at Elizabeth Rose NI.

We have both decided that we know who is getting what and how much we have left to do, but with our Christmas fabrics all down to £2.50 per metre it is actually perfect timing to maybe start something new!

Ribbon and bead trees

Easy Coasters

Scary to think that in two weeks time we will all be sitting “relaxing” on Boxing Day. Where did our year go?

I know that 2 weeks seems a relatively short time, and in the grand scheme of things it probably is, but if you are keen to make a set of cushions like we suggested in a previous post, then all you need is a couple of hours. Quick crafts at this time of year I find are the most satisfying.

A handful of beads and a few lengths of ribbon and you can have a set of Christmas decorations for the tree. Tie it into your colour scheme and you will have a set of decorations that will last until well until whenever. I have done these and the first one takes the longest but after that they are so easy and look fantastic. Mine are on a plain wooden branch painted white at the top of the stairs.

Or how about a handful of fat quarters in Christmas material and transform them into a set of coasters. A useful present, but a beautiful present, for whoever or even keep them for yourself!

So if you think of anything that needs made at the last minute, we are here.

Don’t forget we are open as normal in the week coming up to Christmas but closing early Christmas Eve. We will be closing at 2pm.

So most of the Christmas lights around the district are up twinkling and brightening up the cold, dark nights and here we are thinking of the Christmas holidays and beyond.

Coming up to the Christmas period and into the New Year, our hours here at Elizabeth Rose NI will be changing ever so slightly. But just the hours! The same welcome will always be here.

During the week before Christmas, Monday 19th – Friday 23rd, we will be open as usual from 9am to 5pm but on Christmas Eve Saturday 24th we are closing at 2pm. The turkey needs to be prepped in our houses too.

For Christmas week we will be taking a well earned break and reopening after the Bank Holiday on Wednesday 4th January as usual at 9am.

But that is when things change just a little bit. For the month of January we will be closed every Monday, but don’t worry we will be back to normal in February. As always for more details on our opening hours and the classes we hold, do keep an eye on our calendar.

Don’t forget to call in for all those last minute present for the crafters in you life and we will see you soon.

So for this feature we will be looking at what is on. But not just the calendar, which seems to fill up of it’s own accord in the run up to Christmas. We are looking at what we have on the sewing table, the hooks and the needles.

The classes here at Woodview are ending shortly for the Christmas break, but so much has been accomplished in both our Monday and Thursday evenings and from what has been said there are still little bits to finish up before the holidays begin. But if you are a crafter then there are always little things that you can find to do! Or even start a new project. Do keep an eye on our website calendar as we will be updating it with different events and letting you know when the classes will be restarting in the new year.

So what are Charlene and I doing? Finishing off projects and starting new ones and that is what we would like to tell you about. Not to boast but to let you all know that we are all the same: trying to cram that last little project in.

Although, Charlene seems to have found more hours in the day than I thought possible because as well as running the shop, her home and family, she is crocheting soap squares for the girls at Knitted Knockers and making her daughter a cape for Christmas.

She says the soap squares are an easy wee thing to knock up and like everything from Knitted Knockers they will help and benefit women going through Breast Cancer and more directly after the surgery of a mastectomy. Crocheted in cotton with a bar of soap inside they help patients to massage the area after surgery and they are also safe in the knowledge that by massaging at the same time as washing they are getting clean and helping with circulation.

We recommend that you follow our link to Joanne’s Facebook page and get the patterns directly from her. There are many more patterns beside the one that Charlene is doing, so if crocheting is not your thing then you can ask her for either of the knitting patterns or even the sewing pattern for the heart cushion. https://www.facebook.com/knittedknockersofni/?fref=ts will take you directly to her page and then you can message her from there. I know she will be happy to help and the more the merrier.

Charlene’s other project is a cape for Miss Rosie. Now every girl has to have that special outfit for Christmas and beyond and she has been bought a beautiful dress and now all it needs is that finishing touch. The cape is a simple pattern from the book that accompanied the third series of the Great British Sewing Bee, but as we all know the devil is in the detail. As the main fabric, Charlene has picked one of the new wool blend fabrics from the dressmaking range here in Elizabeth Rose, but for something a little different has opted for a peach cotton as the lining. That little flash of something different

Now I find myself knitting a dress for my daughter! and hoping to have my first advent calendar finished. I usually knit jumpers at this time of year: a real Molly Weasley if you will, but the dress looked like a simple pattern so I thought I would give it a go. Now as I sat down to read the pattern, everything looked to be great until I realised that it did something that I have never done before – knitted from the collar down.

Like all knitters I have read about yoke down clothes but until now I had avoided them. And I don’t know why I did. The dress has come to life before my eyes and as the bottom of it is knitted in the round there are no seams! Yay! I hate darning in all those threads from sewing up. I have chosen a winter white wool with a few flecks of colour in it but it also has a hint of glitter so hopefully she will shimmer when she wears it. Then again she is only 2 so I will have to take a picture quickly!

My other project is an advent calendar for part of our family Christmas decorations. Again this year seems to be my year of firsts and I am attempting my first bit of quilting. I got the advent calendar panel here at Elizabeth Rose at the Sew Saturday event and it has been looking at me ever since. But as with any project the first hurdle is finding the time to sit down and tackle it.

Armed with scissors, enough pins to rival a cactus and my thread, I have all the pieces cut out and pinned together and some tacking done too. Now my biggest decision is whether my hand sewing is what it used to be or do I grab the machine out of it’s bag and get going.

Charlene and I promise that we will add photos of all these projects as we get them finished, but for now we will get back to our needles, pins and hooks. If you need any help with projects or inspiration for a new one then call in. The welcome will be warmer than it is outside anyway.

Now this blog is a little bit of a departure from what we have been talking about before, but we wanted to let you know what is “in” in Elizabeth Rose and beyond. You see the “in” could be what is fashionable in the crafting world, what new products are out or even what we have in the shop that is new and exciting.

So firstly, who has ever heard of Arm Knitting? No? Neither had I until I couldn’t sleep one night and was watching a certain video website and up it popped! Now I was as surprised as you and when I showed the video to Charlene she announced “We have that wool in the shop in 2 colours!”

Now the claim from the lovely lady on the video is that with just one ball of wool, half an hour and two arms you can have yourself an infinity scarf! Ideal for this cold weather. Seems too good to be true but I tried it and it worked. Nobody was more shocked than I.

So let me talk you through it: One afternoon and I was at a loose end – rare but it does happen! So laptop out, video up, cup of tea at the ready and away I went! Now I never got to drink the cup of tea because I hadn’t got any arms free but I did it! I knitted an Infinity Scarf with just my arms and a ball of spare aran wool. Although, I would recommend that you do get the proper super chunky wool as it is heavier, but hey ho this was my test piece. No darning! No finishing! 4 stitches and voila!

Other projects that I have seen for arm knitting include a throw for the sofa or even a rug to cover a whole double bed! Strong arms needed for those. They all claim though that whatever you knit on your arms can be done in an hour or just over it. Maybe that challenge would be for when the snow sets in. But till then I think I will just practise making scarves.

Dior’s New Look from 1947

Dress making is still seeing a resurgence among home crafters and the trend this year is for vintage. With new sewing machines and new fabric blends, vintage patterns are easier to make up than ever before.

Raiding my mother’s pattern stash never seemed accessible before as the fabrics they told me I needed to make a dress were always of the higher price bracket. But today modern fabric blends can lend themselves very easily to the vintage patterns. Or go a bit more modern with a plain shift dress form the sixties or right up to date in terms of vintage with a seventies inspired trouser and long waistcoat combo.

The “New Look” from Dior that appeared in the 1940’s and 50’s, is my personal favourite. The flow of the lines and the attention to the woman’s form, make it a classic style and it can be updated with funky new fabrics. The wiggle dress, worn famously by the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, can now be made in a day with the help of modern technology and worn for years to come.

Another trend that we are seeing in the latter half of 2016, is in the home craft area- cushions and lampshade to match! It could not be easier to update a plain cream room with a few subtle changes. Imagine making 4 sets of cushion covers with their matching lampshades and you could have four different seasons for one room for not alot of effort. Or even take it a step further and embellish a plain fabric with a little flower fairy for a little girls bedroom. As with other home crafts the limit is just your own imagination and in such frugal times it is nice to know that you can update the feel of an entire room without reaching for the paint brush or wallpaper paste.

But it is what’s in in-store though that has got Charlene and I excited – Debbie Bliss, the Queen of knitters, has brought out a homeware range for every stage of knitter and just in time for Christmas. The range includes mugs for that warming cup of tea, tea towels with lots of knitting terms on them, and a very unique apron were some of the info is upside down! Very useful as it means you don’t have to get up to see what you need!

But the biggest and best bit for me would have to be her Knitters Knowledge book. Wow! A hardback book with more info than you ever would think of including how to begin to knit if you are left handed!

Call in and see it for yourself. As with her yarn, Debbie Bliss has created a timeless well thought out range to suit every knitter and as stocking fillers they are perfect. Imagine the mug with a ball of wool and a pair of needles inside to inspire a new knitter. Perfect little gift!